Ninja Gaiden Sigma Progress Report

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We spent the day with Ryu and only lost an arm.

By Greg Miller

As the military air raid siren blared and Ryu deflected bullets with his sword, decapitated heavily armed soldiers and took out machine-gunners with his bow and arrow, the true power of Ninja Gaiden took hold. This is a game that was released three years ago and has had a slick demo on the PlayStation network for weeks, yet with the flick of the joystick it was able to turn any onlooker into a fanboy and leave him or her reminiscing about what a bitch Alma was and how much the Master Ninja difficulty sucked.

Ninja Gaiden might just be the everlasting gobstopper of videogames. People can't get enough.

Would you rather be beheaded or burned?

Tecmo was nice enough to swing by the IGN offices yesterday and showcase several chapters and a handful of missions we've never seen through the outputs on Sony's black box. As Ryu and Rachel tore apart the competition, it was clear that Tecmo and Team Ninja are intent on not just giving PS3 owners and Ninja Gaiden fans the same old song and dance that they saw on the Xbox.

For starters, things that weren't playable in the Xbox version are now at your fingertips. Remember the Hayabusa Ninja Village? The place was an inferno when Ryu got there in the game's first incarnation, but now you're going to have to actually guide the stealthy warrior through the fiery level. Orange embers rain down on the bloodbath you're dealing out via your trusty Dragon Sword, and the action kicks up when you bolt into a burning house, kick down flaming walls and dodge bursts of fire while battling troops intent on skewering you.

Remember the fist time you saw Doku, the blue-energy bad ass that cold-clocked Ryu in his first cutscene? You get to actually go mano a mano with the bruiser on the PS3. It's one of those fights that you're supposed to lose -- and the clad-in-black goliath will probably make sure that you do -- but if you can beat the nigh-impenetrable fortress of a villain, there's an extra special reward coming your way.

She's got an axe. She knows how to use it.

Even that military assault mentioned at the beginning of this article is revamped on the PlayStation 3. The level used to end with you taking on a helicopter, but now you've got to take down a tank-man shooting lasers while said helicopter drops bombs on top of you. Fun.

The most publicized addition to Sigma is the addition of Rachel as a playable character. Yesterday's visit fleshed out the combat we've become so familiar with thanks to the PlayStation Network demo and took the femme fatale up against sword- and knife-wielding foes inside the courtyard of a monastery.